1.3 Does God Speak Today?

Starting school as a teenager was a really tough time for me. I fell into the well-known trap of comparing myself to others. I was really struggling with who I was, focusing too much on how I wanted to fit in. I found myself wishing to be stronger, better- looking, someone who could make people laugh. When I was by myself and trying to sleep at night, I felt there was something wrong with me like I wasn't good enough. Unfortunately, I was bullied and there was one specific person who seemed to be on a mission to make me feel as worthless as possible. His words hurt me deeply and I began to believe the lies. I thought changing the things I didn't like about myself would cause people to like me and then I would like myself instead the opposite happened. The more I changed myself the less I liked the person I was becoming. I wasn't being me and people saw right through it. Now, that I'm older, I'm working with young people, I see so many struggling the same way that I did and it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, that's the reason I chose to work with young people. I want to share the same hope that brought me out of my darkness. Our instinct can be an amazing thing. However, I found that I couldn't always trust it when it came to my self-image. We always hear, listen to your instincts, follow your heart, go with your gut and that is good advice when it's backed up with the input of our parents or our friends. When I was alone, I started to feel like there was something wrong with me and then believing that lie, I often lost out of who I really was. I am made in the image of God and that truth gives me hope. I have been intricately knit together by a loving, caring, creative God. His words proclaim that I am uniquely me and I constantly need to remind myself of that. So, it came down to which voice do I listen to, choosing to believe the truth rather than my own negative feelings has made the biggest difference in my life. I wish I could go back in time and tell the 14-year-old version of myself to stop wishing you were someone else. I wish I could undo the nights I spent staring into the mirror willing the reflection to change. I would tell myself, stop listening to the negative voice in my ear because there's another voice. The voice of truth, the voice of my maker. God made me, me. The world needs me just as I am, not some cheap replica, the original, the masterpiece. We started this journey by asking some of the biggest questions of them all. Like why are we here and who's behind it? We've whizzed around Pluto, flown close to the sun. We even had a pit stop in France and we also heard the difference that faith and a loving creator can have as Eric shared his story. But this is just the beginning, we've so many more places to visit, more life-changing stories to hear and more questions to be asked. We want you to know that this is a safe place to be yourself and to speak honestly. You may have questions and struggle with belief and that's okay, we just hope that you'll enter into this discussion. I once was at a stage in my life where I thought all this faith stuff was boring. But to my great surprise, I have discovered that I have been made by someone who loves me for me, not simply just to exist but made on purpose, made for more.